


Once, I Was Searching

by darktensh17



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Last Unicorn Fusion, Angst, Fluff, M/M, Unicorns, the Tree - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 14:15:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11533947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darktensh17/pseuds/darktensh17
Summary: Last Unicorn AU.Armitage overhears a conversation claiming he is the last of the unicorns, concerned he goes to search for the others. He meets Kylo Ren along the way, a Force user who agrees to aid him, later they are joined by Phasma, captain to a band of roving bandits. As though finding the other unicorns wasn't hard enough, it turns out Kylo has been hiding something big.





	Once, I Was Searching

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Omega_Hux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omega_Hux/gifts).



> This is my Last Unicorn AU that I blame entirely on Omega-Hux. First chapter is going to follow very closely with the movie and draws on a lot of the dialogue, but I'll be changing more from ch. 2 on.  
> Enjoy!

It’s a pleasant afternoon two men ride side by side through a plush green forest. The taller of the two; a blond man with large glasses, wearing a burgundy tunic and umber brown pants, rides a dark horse and carries a set of throwing axes at his sides. His companion is smaller, even more so with the way he curls in on himself making yellow tunic less visible, the tunic is paired with charcoal pants. This man has shoulder length red hair, a strand of which he is currently chewing out of nervousness.

The first man stills his horse and puts a hand on one of his axes, brown eyes scanning the woods around them. “I don’t like these woods Techie. They don’t feel right.”

Techie pulls up along side his companion and tries to see if there is anything out there. His blue eyes are a touch too large and too blue, when he sees nothing he instead closes his eyes to feel and listen. The forest around them is completely quiet; neither a single bird chirps, nor do any leaves rustle. “They say um that the animals that live in a unicorn’s forest learn some tricks of their own.” His voice is this in a voice full of fondness as he speaks “It’s usually to do with disappearing when hunters are near.”

Surprised his companion turns toward him. “You don’t think?”

“It’s possible Matt.” The redhead nods in agreement of a question not fully asked, opening his eyes to once again, pushing himself up to try to peer deeper into the trees. “I thought there were no more, that they were all gone.” There’s pain in his voice and finally he drops back down to sit properly on his horse. “If there is a unicorn here, they won’t appear to us.”

Reaching over Matt takes one of Techie’s hands, threading their fingers together. “It’ll be alright. Why don’t we head out of the forest? We can do find an inn for the night and then decide what to do from there.”

Looking crestfallen the Techie nods. “You’re right.” As they make it to the edge of the forest, he can’t help but turn back toward the wood. “Um, stay here in your forest where it’s safe for you. Keep your trees green and your friends safe.” His hands are shaking as he holds the reigns. “Take care of yourself and good luck, because you are the last.”

From within the trees a coquelicot, male unicorn watches them leave. The unicorn has been watching the two men’s progress since they entered his forest. Though the unicorn is used to humans coming and going here, there was something about the redheaded human that had drawn the unicorn to him. His words are troubling and the unicorn, Armitage as he calls himself, cannot quite believe him. “I am the only unicorn there is in the world? The last?”

-

Armitage walks through the woods, his thoughts flooded with mild disbelief. “It can’t be. How can I be the last?” It’s not possible and he shakes his head, scoffing to himself. “What do men know? Most can’t even see unicorns, how would they be able to tell that they have vanished?”

He pauses deep in thought; there had been something strange about that Techie, something off about him. Was it possible he could see unicorns and this was how he knew? But no, impossible, no unicorn would willingly show themselves for any man or any woman who wasn’t a virgin.

Moving from the trees Armitage enters a clearing with a pond near the center of it, lowering his head at the pond he takes a drink, thoughts still on the conversation he had overheard. “We do not vanish.” He looks thoughtfully at his reflection and for the briefest of moments he isn’t standing at the pond alone. When he looks up however he is as alone as ever. Has there ever been a time he recalls seeing another unicorn?

“No. There has never been a time without unicorns.” The reflection of the moon in the water is disrupted by a stray petal falling. “We live forever.” Armitage does not know how long he has been alive, but he has seen the world outside of his forest change and the men and women who travel through it change in many ways as well. “Unicorns are as old as the sky, old as the moon.”

Settling down for the night in the thicket he calls home, Armitage reflects to himself, “We can be hunter and trapped, we can even be killed if we leave our forests. We don’t simply vanish. I cannot see how hundreds of unicorns would have willingly gone to their deaths if that is why there are no more.”

Morning comes and he is still troubled, “Am I truly the last?” Time makes things fuzzy, but Armitage briefly he remembers another close to him, one who looked exactly the same but the memory is fuzzy and with it comes pain. He shakes his head with a neigh, banishing the image.

His thoughts are interrupted by a loud voice singing, “Wave the flag for the Empire, and show them how we stand.” Soon a small butterfly with black and red wings and wearing a black hat flies into Armitage’s sight. “I am a roving trooper. How do you do?” He asks when he spots Armitage.

“Greetings butterfly, welcome to my forest.” Armitage says with the barest bow of his head in greeting before looking up to get a better look at the butterfly; he has a pale face that seems a bit nervous and under his hat Armitage can see black hair. “What is your name? Have you traveled far?”

“How far would I travel, yes Sir! - to be where you are? T-to give you a name~ Mitaka!” The butterfly sings, fluttering around the unicorn. “Clay lies still, but blood's a-rover. R-Red Rover, Red Rover, let Vader come over! Won't you come home, Han Solo, won't you. . .won’t you come home? My wild Arkanisian rose.” He lands on the Armitage’s horn, spinning around it as he finishes his song.

Armitage shakes his head, though not enough to dislodge the butterfly, Mitaka, from his horn. “Have some respect! Do you not know who I am?”

“Excellent ah, y-you're a smuggler??” The playful tone has an undercurrent of nervousness to it. “You are my everything; you are my sunshine,” Mitaka leans against Armitage’s horn as he sings, and Armitage can feel him rub himself against it. “You're old and grey and full of sleep, and you’re my pickle-faced, consumptive Padmé!”

The songs do nothing to answer Armitage’s question and it frustrates him to no end. “Say my name then.” He demands, with a sharp shake of his head. “If you know my name, know who I am, then tell me.”

Mitaka startles flies off of the Armitage’s horn to flutter around him in an anxious state. In an effort to soothe he croons softly, “Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name!”

“Say it then. If you know it then say it.” Perhaps this silly little butterfly does know, Armitage thinks with a spark of hope.

“Palpatine!” Mitaka giggles, flapping further away. “Gotcha!”

Frustrated at the silly and vapid nature Mitaka puts forward, Armitage turns away, “I should have known better than to expect a silly butterfly to know my name.”

Still giggling Mitaka follows after calling out, “One, two, three o’Jabba!”

Armitage is just preparing to enter into the thick of the woods where Mitaka will likely not follow him. Something has him pausing though, his mind going back to the conversation he had heard the day before. Unbidden it brings to mind the short vision he’d had of that other unicorn. “Mitaka, in all your wandering, have you seen others like me.” Turning back to Mitaka he asks pleadingly, “Even just one?”

Instead of giving him a straight answer, Mitaka flutters around singing. “Oh, have you seen Obi Wan, Obi Wan, Obi Wan??” Any nervousness he may have felt before in Armitage’s presence seems to have vanished.

Still, Armitage cannot give in. “Butterfly. Mitaka. You must have seen one somewhere. They can’t have all disappeared.”

“One? One alone, to be my own... To be the last there’s ever known~” Mitaka flutters up and then catches a ride on a falling leaf, holding one small hand out. “Go and catch a falling star...”

So, it was useless to ask a butterfly then, “It serves me right for even asking you. All butterflies know are songs and poetry and anything else they hear.” He turns away once again and begins to make his way back into the woods. “Fly away you silly thing. Leave.”

“Ohhhh, I must take the Falcon~ Oh, I am a cook and a captain to the bold and the mate of the Finalizer.” Taking on a lilting tone, the butterfly sing-songs, “Has anybody here seen Ani~?”

Armitage wants nothing more to do with him, and pushes through the foliage. “May you travel far and learn many more songs. My own mission will be different; I have to find someone out there who knows me and who has seen others like me.”

He’s stopped abruptly by Mitaka’s voice speaking up, sounding more serious than Armitage has ever heard any butterfly. “Unicorn.”

Turning back around quickly, Armitage stars at Mitaka who has come to rest on the branch of a nearby tree. “Old Imperial, ‘unicorne’. Aurebesh, ‘unicornis’.” He whips out little glasses out of the pockets of his uniform and puts them on. “Literally, one horned: "unus", one, and "cornu", a horn.”

Suddenly Mitaka flies up on a twirl and gestures toward Armitage. “A beautiful animal. Resembles a horse but for the one horn. They are visible only to those who search and trust, and generally mistaken for a white mare.” He settles back down on the branch and looks solemnly down at Armitage. “Unicorn.”

Armitage stares in shock for a moment before prancing in excitement. “You do know me! Tell me, please, have you seen others like me? There must be others out in the world somewhere?”

Mitaka flutters nervously up and starts to distance himself from Armitage calling out, “See you later, Lord Vader! Close cover before striking!”

“No! Mitaka you must tell me! Have you seen the others? Where have they gone? Tell me!” Knowing this may be his only chance to learn about the fates of the other unicorns, Armitage cannot allow Mitaka to leave without getting an answer from him. “Tell me which way I must go to find them!”

Suddenly Mitaka turns around, his wings casting a dark shadow over Armitage’s face from the last of the sun’s rays. “No, no, listen.” He murmurs, dropping his voice into a whisper. “Don't listen to me, listen. You can find the others if you are brave.”

Armitage’s vision goes red and suddenly the sky is pitch black. Around him he can hear the cries of unicorns and when he turn he can see dozens, no hundreds of unicorns run past him, all of them following the same path to somewhere Armitage cannot see. Behind them comes a mass of throbbing red light, chasing them after them and driving them.

“They passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footsteps.” The Mitaka tells him solemnly, his voice mirroring the vision eerily.

Startled Amitage shakes himself from the vision, frightened by it. “Red Bull? What is the Red Bull?” He suspects that whatever the Red Bull is, it has to do with the violent red figure in his vision.

  
“Hold tight. Hold tight. Hold tight. Hold tight!” Mitaka cries, holding out his hands before settling down and continuing in a strange gravely voice. “His firstling bull has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them, he shall push the unicorns, all of them, to the ends of the earth.”

Fluttering up in aggravation, Mitaka shouts, “Listen, listen, listen quickly!”

Frustrated the Armitage follows him after him, “I am listening! Where are the other unicorns and what is the Red Bull?”

“Listen, listen!” Repeats Mitaka, laughing and flying beyond where Armitage can follow. “The emperor is in the counting house, counting out, counting out, counting... “ The last of his words trailing off as he does. “It's you or me, moth! Hand to hand to hand to hand to hand to hand...”

Armitage watches him go, before sighing and walking the familiar paths of his forest. “He said I could find the other unicorns if I were brave. But where?” Pausing he considers an alternative, “Or was the story of the Red Bull just another of his songs?”

Without him being aware night has fallen and Armitage still does not know what to do though as he sees it there are only two options before him, stay or go. “But I could never leave this forest. . . Still I must know if I am the only unicorn left in this world.”

He remembers once again the other unicorn he has almost remembered, someone he cared greatly about. “They could be hiding together somewhere far away. What if they’re waiting for me, in need of my help?”

The vision of the unicorns being chased haunts him again, the butterfly’s voice echoing in his ears. “They passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints.”

Startled by the vision, Armitage neighs in fear and begins running until he reaches the edge of his forest. Startled by where his feet have led him he looks out over the roads of man, staring out as far as his eyes can see as though he can see the other unicorns.

When he turns back the animals that he watches other, his friends, are watching him from the edge of the forest. He can’t tell what they’re thinking but he stares back at them before making his decision. “I will go quickly and then return. I must go; I need to know where they are and what happened to them.” Turning away be begins to make his way into the unknown.

The voice of the butterfly haunts him, “You can find the others if you are brave.”

“I have to be brave enough,” He tells himself, “There is no one else who can finds the others but I.”


End file.
